update needed to mknod man page

[Kristin E Thomas]

I work in documentation in the Linux Technology Center at IBM, and I was
assigned a bug related to the mknod man page.  It looks like a line should
be added to the description explaining that the permission mode is
processed as an octal (like in the description for chmod).  I have attached
the bug description for our bugzilla below.  I was going to send a patch,
but the man page was generated from the command code with help2man, so I
can't edit the man page.

Thanks,
Kristin

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Kristin Thomas
Linux Information Development
Linux Technology Center
Ph. (512) 838-4546, T/L 678-4546
Bldg. 908 1D036
address@hidden


>From bugzilla.linux.ibm.com:

Description:
Hardware Environment:z800/2015-F20-FICON

Software Environment:SLES8-RC6


Steps to Reproduce:
1.issue mknod command with leading zeroes for minor number
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn b 254 004
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn1 b 254 005
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn2 b 254 006
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn3 b 254 007
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo b 254 008
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo1 b 254 009
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo2 b 254 010
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo3 b 254 011
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp b 254 012
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp1 b 254 013
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp2 b 254 014
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp3 b 254 015
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq b 254 016
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq1 b 254 017
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq2 b 254 018
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq3 b 254 019
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr b 254 020
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr1 b 254 021
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr2 b 254 022
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr3 b 254 023
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs b 254 024
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs1 b 254 025
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs2 b 254 026
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs3 b 254 027
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt b 254 028
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt1 b 254 029
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt2 b 254 030
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt3 b 254 031

2.
3.

Actual Results:
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   0 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   0 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   8 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   9 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  10 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  11 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  12 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  13 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  14 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  15 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   1 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   1 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  16 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  17 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  18 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  19 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  20 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  21 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  22 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  23 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   2 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   2 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  24 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  25 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt3

Expected Results:
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   8 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   9 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  10 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  11 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  12 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  13 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  14 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  15 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  16 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  17 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  18 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  19 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  20 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  21 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  22 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  23 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  24 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  25 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  26 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  27 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  28 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  29 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  30 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  31 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt3

Additional Information:
expected results generated by same commands with all leading zeroes removed
when you have to add nodes for 128 devices this behavior will be seen if
you use simple scripts - man/info pages does not say not to and it
intermittently seems to work

------- Additional Comment #1 From Raj(address@hidden) 2002-12-10
06:43 -------
mknod works as expected. Any number with a leading zero is parsed as an
'octal'
number. So number '16' would be number '16' , but number '016' would turn
out
to be number '14' in decimal.

This is not a bug. It works the same way on i386 machines too. To add some
more,

doing mknod b foo 212 0x12 , would result in a minor number of '18' as it
is
parsed as a hex value.

Thank you !

------- Additional Comment #2 From Dave Fosmire(address@hidden)
2002-12-10 09:54 -------
if "mknod works as expected. Any number with a leading zero is parsed as an

'octal'
number. So number '16' would be number '16' , but number '016' would turn
out
to be number '14' in decimal." then it would help the casual observer - one
who
uses the man or info pages - if this was documented there.  I believe it is
RTFM not RTSC - I did checn the man/info pages (which are identical) prior
to submitting this.

------- Additional Comment #3 From Raj(address@hidden) 2002-12-10
23:56 -------
I have checked up with the Redhat-8.0 on an i386 box. The man pages/ info
pages
do not list out the seen behaviour.

Yes, it is a Documentation bug. I had a look at the source code of 'mknod'
which a part of fileutils package. The program very much is expecting input
of
octal & hex numbers and is handling them by calling xstrtoumax() which is
another routine internal to fileutils package.

This has to be documented. I have checked the documentation of 'chmod' and
it
clearly specfies that octal numbering should be used. The same way 'mknod'
has
to documented accordingly.

Khoa:
Please advise me on how to proceed with documentation issues ?

Thank you !